Activities at the September 2 Strategy Lunch
chaired by Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation and sponsored
by Coalitions for America (202/546-3003).

Scandal, Scott Ritter and Romesch Strategy Discussed

Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress
Foundation discussed Scott Ritter's testimony regarding weapons
inspections in Iraq, the Clinton scandal and the White House's
predilection for smearing the reputation of its critics. Sample
comments: "Scott Ritter's resignation in Iraq is very important...
He's saying what the President and Madeleine Albright are saying
is not what we're doing over here in Iraq." -- Senator Inhofe.
"Just from what we know today and what he's admitted to,
[Clinton] should resign." -- Senator Inhofe. "You cannot
say anything [critical of the Administration] without being attacked.
Medal of Honor winner Paul McHale, Scott Ritter, Dan Burton. I
don't think there can be any doubt that they're using an Ellen
Romesch strategy... It's nothing more than political blackmail."
-- Paul Weyrich. Contact Senator Inhofe via Gary Hoitsma at 202/224-4721
and Paul Weyrich at 202/546-3000 (http://www.freecongress.org).

Obscene Materials Distributed

Andrea Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC), a
public policy organization of 36,000 member churches, distributed
(in a plain brown wrapper) copies of a coloring book found in
the reading room of the San Francisco Public Library. The reading
room and its materials are funded by President Clinton's nominee
as Ambassador to Luxembourg, James Hormel. The reading room is
located, Sheldon reports, adjacent to the young people's section
of the library, and is accessible to children of all ages. The
coloring book is like a typical children's coloring book, except
all the pictures to be colored are of women's genitals, and the
book's title and text contain vulgar slang for the body part depicted.
Sheldon also distributed a press release about the contents of
the James Hormel Gay and Lesbian Reading Center of the San Francisco
Public Library, and a letter she has written to Senate Majority
Leader Trent Lott about the Hormel nomination. TVC and numerous
other public policy groups have urged the Senate not to approve
the Hormel nomination. One reason given is anti-Catholic remarks
made by Hormel which he has declined to withdraw. Luxembourg is
a predominately Catholic country. Contact Andrea Sheldon at 202/547-8570.

Puerto Rico May Become a State

Jim Boulet of English First discussed Puerto Rico statehood,
already approved by the House, which may be voted on in the Senate
this fall. Although Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) is
on record saying that there is not enough time for the Senate
to take up this bill this year, Boulet is not confident that Lott
will stop the bill. For one thing, Boulet said, Lott is under
a lot of pressure, as Puerto Rico has sent a group of lobbyists
to Mississippi to lobby Lott. Responding to allegations by pro-statehood
lobbyists that a Puerto Rico congressional delegation will vote
conservatively, Boulet distributed an analysis of the voting record
of Puerto Rico's delegate to Congress, Carlos Romero-Barcelo during
the 103rd Congress (when Democrats allowed delegates to vote).
Romero-Barcelo voted against the death penalty, against home schoolers,
for funding the National Endowment for the Arts, against funding
missile defenses, for unlimited tax increases and for taxpayer-funded
lobbying, among other liberal votes. Contact Jim Boulet at 703/321-8585
or [email protected],
or visit http://www.englishfirst.org.

Missile Defenses Need One More Democrat In Senate

Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy announced that
Senate Majority Leader Lott plans to file a second cloture petition
on S. 1873, "The American Missile Protection Act," most
likely the week of September 8-11. The bill would, for the first
time in history, make it U.S. policy to deploy effective anti-missile
defenses of U.S. territory as soon as technologically possible.
Last May, Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) filibustered the bill. Cloture
was prevented on May 13 when 41 Senators (all Democrats) voted
against a motion to debate the bill. Four Democratic Senators
voted with the Republicans in May (Inouye of Hawaii, Akaka of
Hawaii, Hollings of South Carolina, Lieberman of Connecticut);
if a 5th Democrat votes to end the filibuster this time, the bill
will proceed to a vote and presumed passage. Contact Frank Gaffney
at 202/466-0515 or [email protected]
(http://www.security-policy.org).

Family Forum: Activities at the August 25
Family Forum meeting chaired by Mike Schwartz of the House Family
Caucus and Amy Ridenour of The National Center for Public Policy
Research, and sponsored by Coalitions for America (202/546-3003).

Free Congress Speakers Tackle Variety of Assaults
on the Constitution

Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation introduced three
Free Congress analysts, each of whom addressed three distinct,
yet related, assaults on the U.S. Constitution:

Bill Lind reported on political correctness, which, he said,
"represents the transformation of America into an ideological
state." In the past, he said, "we have been a country
ruled by laws... we are in the process of being taken over by
ideology." Lind called this "cultural Marxism,"
in "which some groups have power over other groups"
with "some groups of people good, others bad." Lind
traced the evolution of cultural Marxism from its intellectual
roots in Germany and Italy early in the century to the student
rebellions of the sixties, until today.

Tom Jipping reported on critical legal studies, the left-wing
ideology now commonly taught which asserts that judges can redefine
the words of the Constitution to mean whatever judges want it
to mean, regardless of what the words actually say. Jipping gave
examples, including judges using this concept to change the Constitution's
meaning on the regulation of commerce, on relations between the
executive and legislative branches, on the limits of federal government
power, on the meaning of the establishment clause and much more.

Lisa Dean discussed several current and relatively new federal
policies that infringe on citizens' rights against unlawful search
and seizure and to freely communicate, among other rights. She
discussed in particular the development of huge citizen databases
to track data on citizens' health care records, driving records,
deadbeat parent status, taxes paid, airline travel history, birth
through death immunization records, college through retirement
professional lives and criminal history records, among others.
She discussed in particular the fact that data from these databases
can be merged to develop psychological profiles of people who
may commit crimes, and then persons may be put under surveillance
or detained to see if they are guilty of any crimes. She also
discussed the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement
Act, which was drafted narrowly by Congress but which the FBI
is now interpreting widely in an attempt to plant hundreds of
thousands of wiretaps each year. Finally, she discussed encyrption
and the fact that the FBI and Clinton Administration want every
citizen using encryption (for example, to send credit card information
over the Internet) to leave the keys to the code with the FBI
at all times for their use without a warrant. This, Dean said,
could allow the FBI to review e-mail, bank accounts, web browser
activity and much more without our knowledge.

Scoop is published by The National Center for Public
Policy Research to provide information about the activities of
the conservative movement. Coverage of a meeting or statement
in Scoop does not imply endorsement by The National Center for
Public Policy Research. Copyright 1998 The National Center for
Public Policy Research. Reprints of articles in Scoop permitted
provided source is credited. ###